A Spring Walk in the Woods

The next St.Thomas Field Naturalist Club Inc. meeting is on Friday, March 7, at 7:30 p.m. at Knox Presbyterian Church, 55 Hincks Street, St.Thomas. Parking lot located at the corner of Hincks and Wellington Street.
The speaker is Brenda Gallagher with the topic "A Spring Walk in the Woods".

Below are two of eight photographs by Bill Rayner that appear in the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas of Ontario.

Barn Swallow

Blue Jay

Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas

Without doubt, the second Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas ranks among the most successful, important, and exciting bird research and conservation projects ever undertaken in the Western Hemisphere. All told, project participants:
- logged an incredible 150,000 hours of time in the field, allowing a thorough assessment of how bird distributions have changed in Ontario since the first Atlas (1981-1985)
- undertook 69,000 point counts across the entire province allowing us to provide the first maps of relative abundance for many species in Ontario.
- submitted an astonishing 1.2 million individual breeding bird records, making the Atlas database an incredibly powerful foundation not only for the book itself, but for innumerable bird research and environmental management applications for many years to come.

Information taken from www.birdsontario.org/atlas where more information is available.

St.Thomas Field Naturalist Club Inc. Butterfly Count, 2007

On July 14, 2007, the St.Thomas Field Naturalist Club Inc. held its 10th Annual Butterfly Count. The count area was limited to a twenty-four km diameter circle centred at the junction of John Wise Line and Rieger Road. A total of six hundred five butterflies of twenty-two different species were counted. The day started off with a mixture of sun and cloud and twenty degrees C, but showers moved in by noon hour bringing an early end to the count, resulting in much lower numbers of species and butterflies than in previous years.
The participants were: Ron Allensen, Alex and Neva Carmichael, Pete Corner, Denzel and Shirley D’Mello, Linda Carmichael Ferguson, Sean Hurley, Brenda and Gordon Longhurst, Bruce and Pat McLean, Dave Nopper, Jamie and Karen Pakkala, Bruce and Hayley Parker, Phil Reynolds, Lil Schubert, and Ann Vance.
The butterfly committee would like to thank all who participated in the count, helping to broaden the focus of the club and hopefully providing another enjoyable and interesting activity for those desiring to participate.
Ann Vance

Butterflies Recorded during the Butterfly Count, 2007
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 14
Cabbage White 164
Clouded Sulphur 89
Orange Sulphur 43
Eastern Tailed Blue 1
Great Spangled Fritillary 12
Eastern Comma 1
Mourning Cloak 2
Red Admiral 35
Painted Lady 1
Little Wood Satyr 21
Common Wood Nymph 68
Monarch 35
Silver-spotted Skipper 18
Common Sootywing 3
European Skipper 15
Northern Broken Dash 20
Striped Hairstreak 4
Banded Hairstreak 2
Summer Azure 9
Red Spotted Purple 4
Dun Skipper 44

Total Species 22
Total Individuals 605

Monarch Watch Tagging Results, 2007

Neva Carmichael, Jamie Pakkala and Ann Vance tagged one hundred twenty-one monarchs. Three tags were unused; one was spoiled. (I tagged the truck.)
Fifty-three of the one hundred twenty-one were males;
sixty-eight were females.
All were tagged and released on site.
One hundred five were tagged at Hawk Cliff or near vicinity. Sixteen were tagged else where.
It appeared that we missed the peak of the migration in the 2 weeks before the demonstrations.
We have had four recoveries, all at El Rosario, Mexico. Three were tagged at Fingal Wildlife Management Area and one at Hawk Cliff, all in September, 2003. The first recovery was on February 29, 2004, the second on January 20, 2005, and the third and fourth on March 7, 2006. The Monarchs had flown about 3,152 km.
Ann Vance

January 2008 Bird Sightings

Ron Allensen Reports:
There was a double crested Cormorant in the Harbour at Port Burwell January 16th to 19th. Never seen one in January around here before.
Also an Oregon Junco was under my feeder January 21st.
I have three swamp sparrows coming to my feeder area now . . this is the first time I have ever had these under my feeders.